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RONOMYTH 3.0: LIFE AFTER THE DEAD. The Riders had been dropping their Dead along the way and, presumably, Deadheads along with them. By their third album, Gypsy Cowboy, the Dead’s participation in the project consisted of Donna Jean Godchaux singing backing vocals on a few tracks. Unlike their debut, written entirely by John Dawson and sounding like pleasant Aoxomoxoa outtakes, the Riders drifted deeper into country-rock with the addition of Buddy Cage and the emergence of Dave Torbert as a songwriter. Gypsy Cowboy finds the band settling closer to a signature sound where psychedelic country-rock is the middle point and any particular song might shift toward one end of the spectrum (“Death and Destruction”) or the other (“She’s No Angel”). Unlike the cover-heavy Powerglide, Cowboy only features two non-original tunes: Angel and “Long Black Veil,” which Johnny Cash had covered a few years earlier. As a testament to Dave Torbert’s emergence as a songwriter, he provides both the title track and the album’s single, “Groupie.” Dawson’s half-dozen range from the psychedelic Death (shades of Satanic Majesties) to pop music with pedal steel (“Sailin’”). There are also the usual references to drugs and outlaws from Dawson (“Superman,” “Whiskey”), themes that have become synonymous with the New Riders. Despite the new material, the main attraction for many will be the pedal steelwork of Buddy Cage, the band’s most formidable musical force. Cage is sweet in any combination (violin, mandolin, guitar) and just the sort of deadly stringslinger from which a band could build a fearsome reputation. From the beginning, the Riders set out to carry what Dead would come and explore the country. Here, on their mighty lonesome, country-rock fans will still want to come along for the ride.